I enjoyed reading what Larry had to say about the vtSDA. I learned a few
new things that may help to convince me that the organization is worth
backing. But there are still some issues that I feel need to get sorted
out before it becomes a truly useful *statewide* organization.
Let me begin by stating that I live in the sparsely populated and often
neglected Northeast Kingdom of the state, a stone's throw from Canada. I
worked for a few decades in the greater Boston area and have definitely
played with the big boys of software development. After founding a
consulting business 7 years ago I became able to finally move back home
while continuing to earn a living doing what I love, making software. I
lived in southern NH for over 20 years and that state's support of high
tech blows the doors off of anything I have yet run across here at home
in Vermont. That's pretty sad but I have come to understand that the
state's road infrastructure and populate distribution are key factors
that hinder progress for our industry (and most others.)
I learned of the vtSDA years ago and was excited at first. Then I
learned that membership was not free and that the only apparent benefit
to membership was the ability to attend meetings in and around
Burlington (and maybe Montpelier). Well gee, a four hour round trip for
a 60 to 90 minute meeting just isn't exciting. I love software, not driving.
If the vtSDA is able to actually get some attention at the state level
and then actually make a difference in how we are able to collaborate
with each other in order to develop software then maybe we're making
progress. Clearly if as many people as possible pitched in to establish
this collaborative environment then we can all win. The big question is:
is this kind of collaboration actually possible here or are people too
sensitive to taking care of 'their own turf' for it to work?
I think that the most important thing that vtSDA, Vague, or any other
high tech related group can do in Vermont is to make it easier for
people to communicate and work together without having to get on the
road. Our beautiful Green Mountains are also our biggest obstacle by
making travel very time consuming.
Given the widening availability of broadband internet connections and
today's state of network and computing technology we should be able to
crack this nut. But it has to be done in a platform agnostic way. If the
provided solution only works with Windows, or only Macs, or only Linux,
then it will fail. In some cases what we need for communication
solutions cannot even require a computer! (Clearly I'm not referring to
software development in this case.)
So if we're talking about applying for grants, teaching people about how
to use FOSS, setting up effective educational scenarios for software use
and development, then I'd strongly suggest we first focus on the problem
of how we can keep people off the roads while helping them to work with
each other effectively. There are already a lot of pieces of the
solution in place and I see the possibility of leveraging them, possibly
in a mashup kind of way, to very good effect.
I'd welcome further discussion on the point by anyone, just don't ask me
to drive to Burlington or Montpelier! :-)
Dan Coutu
Snowy Owl Consulting, LLC
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